German pair Michael Gromöller and Helmut Häusler were the stars of the London Easter Festival over the weekend, starting with a dominant performance in the prestigious Championship Pairs. Their score of 66.15% was more than 5% clear of Frances Hinden and Graham Osborne in second, with Jeffrey Allerton and Chris Jagger a little way back in third. Michael and Helmut won two of the three sessions, and finished third in the other.
Then on the Sunday, joined by fellow Germans Barbara Hackett and Anne Gladiator, Michael and Helmut won the Swiss Teams event too. Things were a little tighter and it came down to the final match, but they were able to hold off the Cox and Gillis teams in second and third.
And they very nearly pulled off the triple on Monday. Needing to win their final match of the Swiss Pairs by a large margin to clinch the victory, they could only manage 9 VPs and finished fifth. Peter Taylor and Richard Hillman won the day instead, with Stefan Skorchev and Peter Ivanov second and Will Roper and Norman Selway third.
The Under 21 Championship Pairs was also held on Saturday with Liam and Jamie Fegarty winning. Andy Cope and Oscar Selby came second, with Imogen La Chapelle and Megan Jones third.
On the Monday, the new Jack High Swiss Pairs ran alongside the main Swiss Pairs event. This was aimed at less experienced players taking a first step into congress bridge and was won by Michael Carson and Jivan Patel. They needed a big win in the final match to have a chance of overtaking Kyoko Hashizume and Noriko Horsley and their 20-0 win was just what they were looking for. Kyoko and Noriko finished second with Christine MacFarlane and Debbie Tangney finishing third.
April 3, 2018